Doyle Wants Focus on 6G, More Spectrum Oversight

Doyle urged the Senate to approve the Future Networks Act (HR-4045), OK’d by the House in December, which would create a federal 6G task force. “The private sector has done so much to move us forward, creating jobs and transforming our economy,” Doyle said: “None of these things are happening in a vacuum. It is incumbent upon the federal government, all governments I would argue, to enact policies that foster and make room for these innovations.”

With important spectrum decisions looming, “no single stakeholder should have final say over the reallocation process,” Doyle said. NTIA should coordinate with the FCC and the White House to “make these decisions in an equitable fashion,” he said. “With the input of all stakeholders, we can find a path forward that makes as much spectrum as possible available for consumer use, innovation and economic activity while also protecting important federal operations.” Congress needs to provide “additional guidance and oversight” on spectrum issues, he said.

The federal government also needs to “hire additional engineers and technical staff to grapple with these weedy issues,” Doyle said.

Doyle said all Americans need access to broadband at prices they can afford. “The quality of our communications networks mean nothing to consumers who cannot access them,” he said. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (see 2111100081) “is finally putting the United States on the path to 100% connectivity,” he said: “We passed the bill, but now we must oversee its implementation.”

There's often a fight between industry and government on the role of regulators, said Robert Blair, Microsoft senior director-5G and external affairs. “Within Microsoft we certainly believe that governments have a role to play to responsibly regulate technologies,” he said: “The question is how do they do that.”

Blair warned issues will become more complicated. “There’s an explosion of new technologies that 5G and 6G are enabling -- network slicing, virtualized [radio access networks], the growth of private and hybrid networks,” he said. Consumers will have to deal with “multiple technologies interconnecting in common interfaces,” he said. That increases surfaces subject to cyberattack, he said. “The likelihood of successful attacks will also go up.”

Supply chain diversity isn’t the same thing as cybersecurity, said Danielle Kriz, Palo Alto Networks senior director-global policy. “Policymakers need to be looking more broadly at securing 5G and 6G networks.” Kriz said the security issues for 6G are “essentially the same” as for fifth-generation: 5G is a “big change” over 4G and is less focused on consumers, she said: Fifth-gen will largely be used by companies and governments “for digital transformation. It’s used by the military in their … bases. 5G is being rolled out by utilities, by manufacturing.” The data going across networks “is a lot more business critical” and “the stakes are much higher,” she said.

No one knows what 6G is, Kriz said. “It’s primarily in academic research labs,” she said. “A lot of it is about high bandwidth, low-latency, short-distance communications,” she said: “There are so many use cases … we don’t even know what it will be.” We do know 6G will require “very strong cybersecurity,” she said.

The world will look very different in 2030 due to 5G, said Sheryl Genco, Ericsson vice president-Advanced Technology Group. “There are new needs and services that we’re going to have,” she said: There will be “this push for more advanced technological tools. Over this course of time we’re going to learn and innovate.” We don’t know what 6G will be but “the research is happening,” she said.